The Sense Of Silk In Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist And Great Expectations

Oliver Twist(1838)and Great Expectations(1861),two of Charles Dickens’ social novels,illustrate a materialistic world of the nineteenth century.A close reading of them would disclose a great number of the depictions of silk.However,for a long time,most critics have concentrated on character analysis and the social reality of the Victorian Britain,while little critical attention is focused on silk itself.This thesis,with the silk in the two novels as the starting point,with things’ roles in fictional narratives as guidance for a cultural study,with capitalism and globalization of the nineteenth century as the background,attempts to dig out the relation between silk and humans by interpreting the substantial roles of silk in the two novels.This thesis reveals that silk,no longer being human accessory,not only influences humans and human relations,but also plays a major role in relations between different countries.The introductory part mainly contains some brief information of Charles Dickens,Oliver Twist and Great Expectations,some excellent previous researches both at home and abroad,the British people’s obsession with things,the significant scenes that silk appears,as well as the main ideas of things’ roles in fictional narratives.Chapter One aims to interpret silk’s influence on humans.According to material culture study,things are endowed with signs that can construct people’s social and individual identities.And in the nineteenth century,silk became the signs of huge property and high social status.The silk-equipped characters in Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are Mr.Brownlow,Miss Havisham and Mr.Jaggers.For one thing,they all have silkware,indicating their shared social identity,the leisure class;for another,the different uses and conditions of their silkware make plain their distinctive individual identities.Chapter Two is concerned with silk’s influence on human relations.The material culture scholars have put forward that unanimated things can also be the source of action,having the capacity like humans and acting upon human world.It is precisely in this respect that the silk handkerchiefs as the active actant affect human relations and participate in human activities in Oliver Twist.On the one hand,the silk handkerchiefs make little Oliver known to Mr.Brownlow and help Oliver to find his origin;and on the other hand,they closely relate Jack Dawkins(Artful Dodger)and Charley Bates to immortal pickpockets,exposing the evil side of the developing capitalist society,the juvenile delinquency in Victorian Britain.Chapter Three explores silk’s influence on relations between countries.The trajectory of things would clearly show what the thing itself intends to present.In Great Expectations,the overseas trade in silk contributes to Herbert’s greater expectations.In fact,the silk trade between Britain and China experienced a great change in the nineteenth century.It was not until the middle of that century that the trade in silk became an interesting business for the British merchants.And through the trajectory of Sino-British silk trade,it is easy to notice that the depictions of silk are actually the cultural presentation of British economic plunder to China.To conclude,in the nineteenth century the British Empire was an empire of capitalism and also an empire in the context of globalization,in which things were necessary and very important.For one thing,in the capitalist context,silk determines human identities and influences human relations;for another,in the global context,silk as the traditional Chinese thing is the other for the British culture,causing tempests in relations between the British Empire and China.